Summary: Day 9 – Sun 16 Aug 2009 – Hatay to Aleppo, including border crossing – 114km
Day 9 – Hatay (Turkey) to Aleppo (Syria)
Today’s ride saw the cyclists bidding goodbye to Turkey and crossing into Syria. The total distance was shorter (about 114km) though border formalities inevitably take time – and the challenge spent two hours at the border, going through the necessary personal and vehicle checks.
The frontier was just over half way through the day’s route, and at the border the cyclists had to ride through 4km of “no man’s land” before they could actually say they were in Syria.
For the first half of the route (until the border), the Turkish police escorted the riders, and once in Syria, the local police took over and provided an escort for the rest of the day’s route.
Tomorrow the team will ride from Aleppo down to Homs, a much longer route at around 218km – and the heat promises to be intense. The Syrian police have promised an escort for at least part of tomorrow’s ride.
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